Prostitution

News about Prostitution, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times.

Chronology of Coverage

Mar. 24, 2015

More than 60 women have had their criminal records cleared in New York under state law passed in 2010 that allows convictions related to sexual trafficking to be removed from a person's record. MORE

Mar. 15, 2015

Sweden's prostitution law, which criminalizes purchase of sex while allowing its sale, has been considered a success but some say law is forcing women into more dangerous situations, and has increased discrimination and stigma attached to prostitution. MORE

Mar. 5, 2015

Editorial welcomes emerging consensus among lawmakers on new initiatives to confront domestic sex-trafficking in the United States; examines bills that would establish 'safe harbor' laws, provide new pool of financing for restitution, victim services and law enforcement, and begin prosecuting those who buy juvenile sex. MORE

Feb. 20, 2015

Imminent conclusion of trial of Dominique Strauss-Kahn on charges of abetting prostitution has many people in France wondering whether personal life of politicians now may be fair game, upending long-held taboo of invading privacy; Strauss-Kahn is likely to be acquitted. MORE

Feb. 11, 2015

Former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn testifies in French sex ring trial, acknowledging that he was part of orgies but denies knowing that women were prostitutes; Strauss-Kahn could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted on charges of abetting prostitution. MORE

Feb. 3, 2015

Former International Monetary Fund head Dominique Strauss-Kahn goes on trial on charges that he was directly involved in operations of international prostitution ring; case has ignited debate about private lives of public officials and sexual morality in France. MORE

Dec. 18, 2014

Retired journalist Takashi Uemura, criticized by rightists for writing about Korean women who were forced work in Japanese military brothels during World War II, receives contract renewal from Hokusei Gakuen University; institution had been considering cancelling Uemura's teaching contract but bowed to show of public support on his behalf. MORE

Dec. 4, 2014

Editorial denounces revisionist scheming by right-wing political forces in Japan to deny shameful truth that Japanese military forced thousands of women into sexual slavery during World War II; contends Prime Min Shinzo Abe's government, which is encouraging these political forces, is playing a dangerous game by pandering to those who want to whitewash nation's wartime history. MORE

Dec. 3, 2014

Japanese right-wing news media and politicians are attacking nation's second-largest newspaper Asahi Shimbun after reporter's investigation into Japanese military's World War II coercion of foreign women into prostitution; Asahi has retracted articles, but they reignited long-standing dispute over country's culpability for its wartime behavior that has flared under Prime Min Shinzo Abe's conservative government. MORE

Nov. 23, 2014

Human Trafficking Intervention Court in Queens, which offers sex workers the option of receiving counseling rather than criminal charges, prepares to mark its 10th anniversary; court has long aimed to change the legal conversation surrounding the multibillion-dollar sex trade, and has become the model for an 11-court program across New York State that began in 2013. MORE

Nov. 15, 2014

Op-Ed article by Mindy Kotler, director of Asia Policy Point, warns that Japanese Prime Min Shinzo Abe's government is engaged in all-out effort to portray historical record about country's sexual slavery during World War II as a lie; contends efforts of Abe's administration cannot go unchallenged if the world is to reduce rape and sex trafficking during wartime. MORE

Nov. 2, 2014

Nicholas Kristof Op-Ed column praises brave girls who are using lawsuits to fight back against website Backpage.com, suits that could have far-reaching implications for sex trafficking in America; contends what is at stake is unaddressed issue of sexual exploitation of children, not censorship of free speech or prostitution; underlines ways website impedes efforts of police and families to trace missing girls and boys. MORE

Oct. 29, 2014

Oct. 17, 2014

Japanese government has asked for partial retraction of 1996 United Nations report on Korean and other women forced to work in Japanese military brothels during World War II; report's author, former UN official Radhika Coomaraswamy, refuses request. MORE

Aug. 6, 2014

Suffolk County Police Department arrests John Bittrolff of Manorville, NY, on charges of murdering Colleen McNamee and Rita Tangredi, believed to have been prostitutes, in the early 1990s; prosecutors say DNA evidence ties him to deaths of women, who were beaten, strangled and whose bodies were found in a wooded area on Long Island. MORE

Jul. 10, 2014

European statistics agency Eurostat is overhauling its economic measurements and requiring all European Union countries to take fuller accounting of trade in sex, drugs and other underground businesses; effort is aimed at getting more accurate reading of each country's gross domestic product. MORE

Jul. 1, 2014

Belgian court orders newly opened sex club called the DSK to change its name; ruling is another legal victory for the man known widely by those initials, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, French politician and former head of the International Monetary Fund who faced charges, later dropped, of sexually assaulting a hotel housekeeper in New York in 2011. MORE

Jun. 24, 2014

Jun. 21, 2014

Group of government-appointed Japanese scholars seems to raise doubts about accuracy of landmark 1993 apology to women forced to work in military brothels during World War II; finding could worsen tensions between Japan and South Korea over wartime history. MORE

Jun. 16, 2014

Isaias and Bonifacio Flores-Mendez are each sentenced to life in prison for smuggling hundreds of Mexican women across the border and forcing them into prostitution in and around New York City; are among 16 people who have pleaded guilty to charges in connection with sex-trafficking ring, which was broken up in April 2013. MORE

Jun. 15, 2014

Somaly Mam, one of Cambodia's most prominent social activists, had stepped down from United States-based charitable organization bearing her name after questions arose about her claim that she was orphan sold into sex slavery; her fall from grace highlights what aid workers in country say is widespread embellishment and in some cases outright deception in fund-raising, especially among the country's orphanages. MORE

Jun. 5, 2014

Canadian government introduces legislation that would criminalize buying sexual services but would not, in many situations, make selling them illegal. MORE

May. 31, 2014

Michael Wilson Crime Scene column; New York State law passed in 2011 allows police officers to arrest distributors of 'chica cards,' which display pictures of females, sometimes barely clothed, and a phone number to call for delivery of prostitution services; law has drastically cut down on the number of card peddlers in Corona, Queens. MORE

May. 31, 2014

National statistics agency says that prostitution and import, manufacture and consumption of illegal drugs like crack cocaine and heroin will be included in official estimates of Britain’s economy. MORE

May. 30, 2014

Activist Somaly Mam resigns from foundation that bears her name amid allegations she and others connected to group fabricated stories about their experiences as young victims of sex trade; Newsweek reports that assertions about being sold into slavery and sex trafficking are untrue. MORE

May. 30, 2014

Op-Ed article by author Melissa Gira Grant reflects on resignation of Cambodian anti-trafficking icon Somaly Mam from her own foundation amid allegations of fraud; contends Mam's false stories and distorted efforts led to policies that harmed the very women she said she was trying to save; questions whether Mam's Western supporters understand the price of the falsehoods they were sold. MORE

May. 13, 2014

New York Police Department will significantly limit the practice of seizing condoms for use as evidence in prostitution-related cases, ending a procedure that health officials have long criticized as undermining their efforts to protect prostitutes from disease. MORE

Apr. 9, 2014

Japan's Foreign Min Fumio Kishida seeks to distance his government from far-right statements about World War II made by political associates of Prime Min Shinzo Abe, including denials of sexual servitude of thousands of Korean, Chinese and other women; his comments come as Japan and United States try to show unity ahead of visit by Pres Obama. MORE

Mar. 22, 2014

Honolulu police urge lawmakers to preserve an exemption in Hawaii law that lets vice officers have sex with prostitutes during investigations; Honolulu police say they need the legal protection to catch lawbreakers in the act. MORE

Mar. 15, 2014

Japanese Prime Min Shinzo Abe, moving to defuse heated diplomatic dispute over World War II-era history, says government will not revise landmark 1993 apology to women forced to work in Japanese military brothels. MORE

Mar. 11, 2014

Japanese government says it will not revise a landmark apology to women forced to work in military brothels during World War II, even as it moves ahead with a review of the testimony used to create that apology; statement is issued in response to rising criticism from South Korea. MORE

Mar. 7, 2014

China is undergoing harshest anti-vice campaign that government has mounted in years, shuttering brothels and other illicit trades; crackdown is taking especially harsh toll on economy of Dongguan, city of eight million people and home to bustling red-light industry. MORE

Mar. 1, 2014

Japanese government says it will re-examine a landmark apology it made two decades ago to women forced to work in wartime military brothels, in a move that could further outrage South Korea, where many of the women came from. MORE

Feb. 27, 2014

Nicholas Kristof Op-Ed column welcomes fact that police are beginning to arrest johns who visit prostitutes, and not just prostitutes themselves; holds shift indicates growing awareness of sex trafficking as serious human rights violation; says one of simplest ways to reduce scale of human trafficking is to arrest men who buy sex. MORE

Feb. 18, 2014

Chinese government has widened a crackdown on prostitution, gambling and drug use to include major provinces across the country. MORE

Feb. 13, 2014

Nicholas Kristof Op-Ed column examines related issues of teenage runaways in America and prostitution of minors; contends teenage prostitution continues in part because of multiple societal failings, including racial bias; calls for increased national attention to problem. MORE

Feb. 6, 2014

Letters from New York State Atty Gen Eric Schneiderman and Caryl M Stern, president and chief executive, United States Fund for Unicef, respond to Feb 1 Op-Ed article by Kate Mogulescu urging steps to end human trafficking. MORE

Feb. 1, 2014

Op-Ed article by victims advocate Kate Mogulescu maintains there is no data to support widely-discussed 'surge' in sex trafficking around the Super Bowl and other large events; holds myth has led to harmful crackdowns on prostitutes in lead up to events, forcing victims into the criminal justice system rather than providing them the assistance they need. MORE

Jan. 30, 2014

Nearly 20 women are arraigned on prostitution charges on single day in New York City, far more than normal, as police crack down on prostitution leading up to the Super Bowl. MORE

Jan. 29, 2014

Girls Court, special tribunal that is part of nationwide network, aims to nurture vulnerable young women, especially those forced into prostitution, instead of treating them as criminals; promising system links at-risk youth to social service agencies, providing informal sessions on everything from body image to legal issues, offering team of adults in whom they can develop trust. MORE

Jan. 2, 2014

Advocates for legal overhaul of China's penal system for prostitutes claim victory after government announces that it will abolish 're-education through labor' program; system holds up women in detention centers for up to two years and often requires working seven days a week for no pay, with no recourse for prisoners. MORE

Dec. 21, 2013

Supreme Court of Canada votes unanimously to strike down country's laws that effectively criminalize prostitution, finding that they violate prostitutes' constitutional guarantee of 'security of the person'; judgment is among most significant and contentious rulings by Supreme Court since Canada adopted Charter of Rights and Freedoms as part of its Constitution in 1982. MORE

Dec. 21, 2013

Department of Homeland Security reviews says the Secret Service does not have widespread misconduct, nor has agency's leadership fostered environment that tolerates bad behavior; review began after several Secret Service employees were caught soliciting prostitutes in Cartagena, Colombia, shortly before Pres Obama arrived there for summit meeting in April 2012. MORE

Dec. 9, 2013

Editorial welcomes anti-prostitution law passed by the French Parliament that will bring the country in line with a growing consensus that it makes better sense to treat prostitutes as victims rather than as criminals; maintains exploitation of sex workers in increasingly true in Europe with increase in trafficking of foreign women, including underage girls, to work in foreign countries. MORE

Dec. 5, 2013

French Parliament’s lower house takes first step in criminalizing the purchase of sex, approving a package of legislation to discourage prostitution. MORE

Nov. 9, 2013

Rio de Janeiro is razing slums, upgrading stadiums and shuttering red-light emporiums in effort to present cleaned-up image of metropolis ahead of 2014 World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics; clampdown is meeting some resistance and is fueling discussion of rights of prostitutes and historically ribald essence of Rio itself. MORE

Nov. 7, 2013

Nicholas D Kristof Op-Ed column contends it is important to remember that slavery has not been entirely abolished in the United States, since victims of human trafficking can fairly be called modern versions of slaves; suggests one way to rectify situation is by arresting and punishing pimps rather than customers of prostitutes, many of whom are forced to work in the sex trade. MORE

Oct. 13, 2013

Nicholas D Kristof Op-Ed column highlights story of Shelia Fay Simpkins, former prostitute who received aid from a Vanderbilt University program that helps women escape trafficking and prostitution; contends her story shows that the fight against sex trafficking, which exists all over the United States, is not hopeless. MORE

Oct. 1, 2013

Casino owner and Republican donor Sheldon G Adelson loses $60 million libel lawsuit in which he said National Jewish Democratic Council, spread false accusation that he had condoned prostitution in his Macau casinos. MORE

March 25, 2015, Wednesday

Over 60 women have had their records cleared under a New York State law that treats those forced to become prostitutes as victims, making it easier for them to find jobs and overcome financial hardship.